Dr Elizabeth Seward
Senior Lecturer
Department of Biomedical Science
The University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield S10 2TN
United Kingdom
Room: E03 Florey building
Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 2383
Fax: +44 (0) 222 2360
email : e.p.seward@sheffield.ac.uk
Career history
- 2003- Present: Senior Lecturer, Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield, UK
- 2000-2003: Lecturer, Department of Cell Physiology & Pharmacology, University of Leicester, UK
- 1996-2000: Lecturer, Department of Pharmacology, University of Bristol, UK.
- 1994-1995: Postdoctoral Fellow, Glaxo Institute for Molecular Biology, Geneva, Switzerland.
- 1991-1994: Medical Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept Anatomy & Neurobiology, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
- 1991: Postdoctoral Researcher, Dept. Pharm., University of California, San Diego, USA
- 1986-1990: Ph.D. Department of Pharmacolgy, University of Cambridge, UK. Member of Trinity College.
- 1985: M. Phil. Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, UK. Member of Trinity College.
- 1981-1984: B.Sc. (First Class Honours). Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Research interests
Aberrant secretion of neurotransmitters, hormones or immune mediators contributes to the pathology of a wide variety of chronic neurological, endocrine and inflammatory diseases ranging from stress and hypertension through to asthma and irritable bowel syndrome. Research in our lab is focussed on identifying the signalling pathways and molecules controlling secretion from neurones and mast cells, with a special interest in voltage-gated (CaV), ligand-gated (P2X and nAChR), receptor-operated (TRPC) and store-operated (Orai) calcium channels, IgE and G protein coupled receptors (P2Y, Histamine), and SNARE regulatory proteins (synaptotagmins, Doc2 and Munc13). Most of our work is performed at the level of isolated primary cells using high resolution techniques including patch-clamp electrophysiology, carbon fibre amperometry, calcium imaging and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy with various fluorescence-based biosensors.
Recent highlights of our research include (1) the discovery of ATP-sensitive P2X receptors on human lung mast cells, activation of which may contribute to the pathophysiology of asthma, (2) the first demonstration of Munc13 as an essential effector of phospholipase C-coupled G protein coupled receptor regulation of neurotransmitter release in mammalian cells, and (3) the modulatory action of synaptotagmin IV on the calcium-sensitivity of the neuronal fusion machinery.
Collaborators
- Dr Walter Marcotti
- Dr Peter Peachell
- Dr Heather Wilson
- Prof G Battaglia
- Prof D Grundy
- Prof Peter Bradding (University of Leicester, UK)
Activities and distinctions
Member of:
- Asthma UK Research Review Panel Member
- International Symposium on Chromaffin Cell Biology Organizing Committee (2005-)
- Biophysical Society, Exocytosis and Endocytosis Subgroup (2002-)
- Society for Neuroscience (1991-)
- Physiological Society (1999-)
Funding
- Syntaxin Ltd.
- University of Sheffield/WARP
- The Royal Society
- The Wellcome Trust
- Asthma UK
- GlaxoSmithKline
Recent publications
Johnson SL, Franz C, Kuhn S, Furness DN, Rüttiger L, Münkner S, Rivolta MN, Seward EP, Herschman HR, Engel J, Knipper M and Marcotti W
Synaptotagmin IV determines the linear calcium dependence of vesicle fusion at auditory ribbon synapses.
Nat Neurosci. 2010 Jan;13(1):45-52. Epub 2009 Dec 13.
Wareham K, Vial C, Wykes RCE, Bradding P, Seward EP (2009)
Functional evidence for the expression of P2X1, P2X4 and P2X7 receptors in human lung mast cells.
British Journal of Pharmacology
R. C.E. Wykes, M. Lee†, S. M. Duffy, W. Yang, E. P.Seward*, and P. Bradding (2007)
Functional transient receptor potential melastatin 7 channels are critical for human mast cell survival.
The Journal of Immunology 179:4045-4052.
C. S. Bauer, R. J. Woolley, A. G. Teschemacher, and E. P. Seward (2007)
Potentiation of exocytosis by phospholipase C-coupled G-protein-coupled receptors requires the priming protein Munc13-1.
J Neurosci. 27 (1):212-219
R. C. Wykes, C. S. Bauer, S. U. Khan, J. L. Weiss, and E. P. Seward (2007)
Differential regulation of endogenous N- and P/Q-type Ca2+ channel inactivation by Ca2+/calmodulin impacts on their ability to support exocytosis in chromaffin cells.
J Neurosci. 27 (19):5236-5248